Fall is beloved for many reasons, the weather starts to cool, the leaves start to turn, and pumpkin spice flavors are everywhere. Arguably, some of the most exciting things that return every fall are new seasons of fan favorite television shows. From the NFL to the Great British Bake Off, nearly everyone is looking forward to something airing or streaming in the coming months.
This year, there is a flood of new shows and new seasons to look forward to. Most streaming services are releasing at least one new show or new seasons of old favorites. Multiple interviews were conducted with staff and students to see which shows are on the top of their lists.
For some, a highlight of the fall television schedule is the return of reality shows.
“I’m most excited about Bachelor in Paradise and Golden Bachelor! My family used to watch it together before I left for college. Now that I live in Eureka, we still watch it every week when it comes out and will text as we watch to talk about the show! Bachelor in Paradise is just a new season while Golden bachelor is a brand-new show which is exciting,” Aaliyah Perez (Junior) said.
The Bachelor is a show that has been around since 2002, and since its first airing has spawned multiple spinoffs. It is commonly referred to as “Bachelor Nation” and more information about The Golden Bachelor and other upcoming shows can be found on their website.
For others, more cinematic shows are on the list.
“It’s already come and gone by now, but I enjoyed the second season of Dark Winds. It brought a good level of diversity to an existing genre (mystery), and it balanced tension with humor nicely,” Dr. Ezekiel Jarvis, Professor of English, said.
“I think the show I’m most excited about watching this fall is Loki Season 2, coming out on October 6th. I used to be very into watching Marvel shows and movies, but lack of time has made it hard to keep up. So, I’m looking very forward to taking self-care time to relax and watch something new” Audrey Welch (Senior) said.
“I’m looking forward to getting started on Max’s Our Flag Means Death after the good reviews I’ve read. I will also check out the new Frasier due to the nostalgia, though I don’t have too high of hopes” Dr. Phil Duncan, Professor of Communication and Media Studies, said.
These three shows are all different in terms of content, but they share a level of advanced cinematography and craftsmanship that sets them apart from traditional television. This is not surprising because long form bingeable shows are becoming more readily available due to the rise of streaming. Loki, for example, is only releasing six episodes for its sophomore season but each episode is around an hour long.
A major shift that has happened is most shows used to come from cable and syndicated and would stream later on streaming services. Now most streaming services are creating their own shows and putting more effort into branding things with their own name. Both Dark Winds and Our Flag Means Death are Max original shows, and Loki is an original on Disney+.
The rise of streaming popularity has affected how many people watch television, specifically when they watch television. The fall release season has always been greeted with enthusiasm, but the digital age has changed the norm on television release schedules.
“I do think that streaming has changed how we engage with TV shows, because I think that we like to binge them. As an old man, I remember how it was when you really did have to wait a full week for the next show to come out, but now we can wait and watch all of the episodes very close to each other (I tend to watch shows when I work out, so I can get a full season of something like Dark Winds completed in a week or two). That changes the storytelling because shows don’t need to be purely episodic anymore. They can have larger, more sprawling storylines, because viewers don’t always have to be reminded of what happened last week” Dr. Jarvis said.
“I don’t find myself looking forward to the fall TV season as much as I did when I was younger in the pre-streaming era. There is so much content in the modern sphere, both new and legacy, that is always on-demand. This has changed the feeling of anticipation for fall TV that we once had when shows were scheduled and only ran once, then sporadically in reruns and syndication” Dr. Duncan said.
Both Dr. Jarvis and Dr. Duncan are members of the older generations and grew up with cable or satellite as the only real way to watch television, and there wasn’t an option to stream the next day. That has changed with recent generations who have no issue missing the release date of a show because it is almost immediately available afterwards.
“Personally, in my household, we don’t have cable anymore. We just have a few streaming services. Having cable was fun being able to watch the TV shows as soon as they came out, but I don’t mind watching my shows the next day when it’s on the streaming services” Perez said.
“Streaming has definitely changed how I watch shows. I used to be really excited for new shows every fall, and I always had to watch the pilots of new shows coming out. Now, I feel like it’s more of a matter of how much time I have on my hands. My new “TV season” as an adult is more of the summer. With more time on my hands and less to worry about, the summer is the perfect time to take time to relax and catch up on my shows” Welch said.
People are noticing and adapting to the shift towards streaming. The traditional weekly episode format is really only staying alive through reality shows and cable television, and it seems the fall season is losing its appeal to most. Now that high quality television is readily available year-round, the question remains: will the fall television season still be the peak of new releases, or has streaming changed it forever?
